Online Curator Project: The Hidden World of CYMATICS

My quest for understanding all the wonders of sound has led me to an interesting new form of sonic analysis, or art form known as Cymatics.  It is the study of visible sound and vibration and provides unbelievable feedback on the way sound can perfectly manipulate different forms of matter in the natural world.  Below are listed a few major contributors, and interesting players who have played an integral role in shaping what has become of Cymatics today.

Hans Jenny: Swiss physician who coined the term Cymatics, considered the father of the field.  He developed an intrument called the Tonoscope which was used for conducting Cymatics experiments utilizing the human voice as the sound source.  In 1967 he published a book called "Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena" which documented his experience with using sound to vibrate fluids, powders, and liquid paste.

A demonstration of Jenny's Tonoscope can be viewed here: Christian Stuten Demonstrates Tonoscope

Examples of Jenny's work from "Cymatics: A Study of Wave Phenomena"

Alexander Lauterwasser: German researcher, photographer, and tortoise enthusiast highly influenced by Hans Jenny.  He has conducted several experiments on using sound to vibrate water and published a book of photographs documenting his experience.  Here is a short clip that is part of a PBS produced documentary done on his research: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxV0FrFMxUY .

Example of Lauterwasser's work from his book "Water Sound Images"

John Stuart Reid: An acoustics engineer who has been a major contributor to what information can be gathered through cymatic means.  He began in 2002 developing a tool called the CymaScope which has been used to conduct Cymatic research in fields ranging from Astrophysics to Dolphin speech recognition..  More information on the CymaScope can be found here: John Stuart Reid's CymaScope as well as video clips documenting research done using the CymaScope: http://www.cymascope.com/soundsfun.html

Examples of Reid's process towards decoding the language of the dolphin using the CymaScope.

Evan Grant: Founded the collective Seeper in 1998 (http://seeper.com/) which does several public installations involving sound reactive devices.  Seeper has also used Cymatics as a means for accelerating language development in individuals with Autism.  A video of one of their installations can be viewed here: http://seeper.com/baskerville/ , as well as an article written by Grant on Austism and cymatics: http://www.cymatics.co.uk/autism/ .  He launched the hub www.cymatics.co.uk which brings together people all over the world involved, or interested in cymatics.  Here is a link to a short TED lecture by Grant on Cymatics: http://www.ted.com/talks/evan_grant_cymatics.html